FR Doc E8-20107[Federal Register: August 29, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 169)]
[Notices]
[Page 50989-50990]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr29au08-105]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of
the Interior, National Park Service, San Juan Island National
Historical Park, Friday Harbor, WA and Thomas Burke Memorial Washington
State Museum, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3005, of the intent
to repatriate cultural items in the possession of the Thomas Burke
Memorial Washington State Museum (Burke Museum) University of
Washington, Seattle, WA, and in the control of the U.S. Department of
the Interior, San Juan Island National Historical Park, Friday Harbor,
WA, that meet the definition of "unassociated funerary objects" under
25 U.S.C 3001.
This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003 (d)(3).
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the
superintendent, San Juan Island National Historical Park.
In 1946 and 1947, human remains and associated funerary objects
were recovered during legally authorized excavations by University of
Washington archeologist Arden King at the Cattle Point Site (45-SJ-01)
on San Juan Island. Cattle Point is within the American Camp portion of
San Juan Island National Historical Park on the southern part of San
Juan Island. The funerary objects were transferred to the Burke Museum
and later accessioned by the National Park Service. The whereabouts of
the human remains is not known. The 249 unassociated funerary objects
are 103 basalt flakes, 60 non-human mammalian bone fragments, 61 shell
fragments, 2 bags of fish bones, 11 charcoal samples, 1 rock, 2
sediment samples, 1 piece of obsidian, 1 fire cracked cobble, 1 quartz
flake, 1 piece of schist, 2 pieces of slate, 1 pebble, 1 sea urchin
spine, and 1 sea lion humerus.
In 1970 and 1972, authorized excavations of a shell midden took
place at the English Camp Site (45-SJ-24) on San Juan Island and within
the English Camp portion of San Juan Island National Historical Park
during a University of Idaho field school directed by Dr. Roderick
Sprague.
Four objects were recovered in 1970 from the same stratum in which
a burial
[[Page 50990]]
was found. The human remains were transferred to the University of
Idaho before being repatriated to the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi
Reservation, Washington on June 26, 1991. The four funerary objects
were transferred to the Burke Museum and accessioned by the National
Park Service. The four unassociated funerary objects are one portion of
a non-human mammalian limb bone, one basalt shatter fragment, one
triangular basalt point fragment, and one ground abrader fragment.
The 1972 excavation recovered 32 objects that were associated with
three burials. The human remains were transferred to the University of
Idaho and subsequently repatriated to the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi
Reservation, Washington on June 26, 1991. The funerary objects were
transferred to the Burke Museum and accessioned by the National Park
Service. The 32 unassociated funerary objects are 2 fish vertebrae, 1
antler tine fragment, 1 fused bird wing bone, 24 fragments of non-human
bone, 2 pieces of fire modified rock, 1 basalt shatter fragment, and 1
point fragment.
Arden King's analysis of archeological data from Cattle Point
resulted in the identification of three prehistoric phases, with the
most recent representing a maritime adaptation that is ancestral to
historic native populations in the United States and Canada.
Archeological research and analysis indicates continuous habitation of
San Juan Island, including the two sites mentioned here, from
approximately 2,000 years ago through the mid-19th century.
Anthropologist Wayne Suttles has identified the occupants of San Juan
Island as Northern Straits language speakers, a linguistic subset of a
larger Central Coast Salish population, who were ancestors of the Lummi
Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Washington. Furthermore, Suttles'
anthropological research in the late 1940s confirmed that the Lummi
primarily occupied San Juan Island and other nearby islands in the
European contact period and during the early history of the Lummi
Reservation that was established on the mainland in 1855, through
Article II of the Treaty of Point Elliott. San Juan Island is within
the aboriginal territory of the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation,
Washington. Lummi oral tradition, history and anthropological data
clearly associate the Lummi with San Juan Island.
The Samish Indian Tribe, Washington is most closely associated with
the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Washington linguistically and
culturally, and the Samish regard San Juan Island to be within the
usual and accustomed territory shared by both tribes at the time of
negotiations for the Treaty of Point Elliott, in 1855. In 2006, the
Samish Indian Tribe, Washington and the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi
Reservation, Washington entered into a cooperative agreement to have
the Lummi Tribe take the lead in receiving repatriated human remains
and funerary objects from San Juan Island National Historical Park. The
traditional territory of the Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish
Reservation, Washington is on the mainland in the vicinity of La
Conner, WA, on Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island, the site of their
reservation.
Officials of San Juan Island National Historical Park have
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(B), the 285 cultural
items described above are reasonably believed to have been placed with
or near individual human remains at the time of death or later as part
of the death rite or ceremony and are believed, by a preponderance of
the evidence, to have been removed from specific burial sites of Native
American individuals. Officials of San Juan Island National Historical
Park also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), there
is a relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably
traced between the unassociated funerary objects and the Lummi Tribe of
the Lummi Reservation, Washington.
Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary objects should
contact Peter Dederich, superintendent, San Juan Island National
Historical Park, P.O. Box 429, Friday Harbor, WA 98250-04289, telephone
(360) 378-2240, before September 29, 2008. Repatriation of the
unassociated funerary objects to the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi
Reservation, Washington may proceed after that date if no additional
claimants come forward.
San Juan Island National Historical Park is responsible for
notifying the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Washington; Samish
Indian Tribe, Washington; and Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish
Reservation, Washington that this notice has been published.
Dated: July 31, 2008.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-20107 Filed 8-28-08; 8:45 am]
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